A 5-year-old child's self-esteem on the same scale as that of an adult

Self-esteem is a complex psychological concept which can be summarized as a positive or negative view that individuals have of themselves which tends to remain relatively stable throughout life.

Researchers at the University of Washington in the US suggest that this important feature of our personalities is established in early childhood, even before kindergarten, because by age 5 most children already have a sense of self-esteem comparable in strength to that of adults.

Up until now, the only self-esteem test available was for adults. This Implicit Association Test analyzes attitudes, personalities and stereotypes by measuring associations between key words like "self" and "pleasant" or "other" and "unpleasant" to evaluate self-esteem.

The scientists adapted the test to children using a new tool: the Preschool Implicit Association Test. A total of 234 American children aged 5 had to combine "me" and "not me" flags with a series of words that were either positive (good, funny, nice) or negative (mean, bad, yucky). The results indicated that they associated themselves more with the positive words.

The team also did some tests evaluating the children's sense of whether they are male/female. They discovered that the children with high self-esteem and strong own-gender identity showed a preference for members of their own gender.

"Some scientists consider preschoolers too young to have developed a positive or negative sense about themselves. Our findings suggest that self-esteem, feeling good or bad about yourself, is fundamental," explained Andrew Meltzoff, the study's co-author. "It is a social mindset children bring to school with them, not something they develop in school."

Meltzoff added: "What aspects of parent-child interaction promote and nurture preschool self-esteem? That's the essential question. We hope we can find out by studying even younger children." The researcher and his team now want to work out at what age this concept emerges.